Now I finally wathced 《天下无贼》, and it is better than I had initially expected, but not that much. The story was weak, and the characters were even weaker. I was feeling much more like simply watching a show, rather than feeling as part of the show. Some conversations were funny, but again, not that humourous, there was a difference. My fast-food analogy still stands.
What touched me most (and actually a little bit surprised, but perhaps shouldn't be) was 冯小刚's choice of ending for this movie: to let Root believe that there is no thieves in this world, after watching what happened throughout the train ride. Alright perhaps it's furthest away from the reality, but I am an idealist, so it still touched me, and Andy Lau certainly helped as well.
One scene made quite an impression on me: Andy Lau asked Rene Lau: "How could Root live so innocently? How could he be this stupid? Shouldn't he learn the facts of life?" Apparently the director was trying to approach a more profound social issue. He raised the question, but failed to answer it with honesty, thus made this movie in lack of depth.
Andy Lau's performance was much better than I had anticipated, but Rene Lau disappointed me a little bit. However in all honesty, Rene's character wasn't given a real chance to develop anyway, but I knew what she could be (a great actress to say the least), so she disappointed me a little bit. Her ending scene was exaggerated, I feel. If she ate those pancakes seriously, slowly and without the mess on her mouth and without tears, I'd be much more touched. However this demonstrated the director's level of intellectual ability: he's not there yet.
Some funny quotes include:
“人心散了,队伍不好带啊。”
“我本将心向明月,奈何明月照沟渠。知我者谓我心忧,不知我者谓我何求。”
“21世纪什么最贵?人才!”
“我又不是成龙,有一百条命。”
“这次出来一是锻炼队伍,二是考察新人,在这里我特别要表扬两个同志,小叶和四眼。他们不仅超越了自己,也超越了前辈。”